Former President McAleese slams Catholic church's attitude to homosexuality

The Catholic Church is self-destructing with its first millenium agenda and its unwillingness to evolve into the third millenium.

We appreciate the candid comments of Mary McAleese!

You might think that because Jesus said "Blessed are the Peacemakers" and spoke very plainly in opposition to Divorce the US Catholic bishops would take every opportunity to denounce War and those who promote it and would be calling for strict laws banning married couples in the US from divorce. But no, the American RC Church has been conspicuously silent about the immoral and illegal US invasions of Arab and Muslim countries that have ended up killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and rarely do we hear them publicly criticize divorced people. Instead, the US bishops have taken the safe and frankly, cowardly route by openly targeting a group of people who are already the object of much ridicule and scorn in society because of their sexual orientation. The ironic part ofcourse is that Jesus never even mentioned homosexuality, and if truth be told the Catholic priesthood (as is obvious) is filled with men who the Church officially describes as "disordered" because of their homosexual orientation.

Can religious anti-LGBT sentiment be as oppressive in Ireland as it has been in the US? Just in the past week, the RC Archbishop of Seattle, J. Peter Sartain, commented, “human society would be harmed beyond repair” if his state's marriage equality law stands. Also this week, as reported in the LA Times, Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop-elect of San Francisco, ordered gay men and lesbians not to partake of Holy Communion. Tomorrow, the RC Archdiocese of Newark, NJ will distribute a "pastoral reflection" by AB John J. Myers, ordering not only sexually active gay Catholics but any Catholic who supports same-sex marriage not receive the Eucharist. Marriage equality, he believes, would "seriously undermine religious freedom," and he encourages homosexuals to marry partners of the opposite sex! Myers issued a 16-page attack against marriage equality in which he compares gay marriage to incest and cites Mark Regnerus' quack study that denigrates non-biological parenting. The New Civil Rights Movement points out that the US Catholic Church is exempted under federal law from $71 Billion in annual taxes despite its aggressive political lobbying on this issue. Comments on the blogs are focusing, with understandable anger, on this tax exemption, as well as on the psychological and social harm done by this fanatical campaign against LGBT rights.

Holy and Loving God, May all realize this -- soon. Amen.

olovely, my sentiments. Actually, I would probably been a little harsh in my criticism of the Church/Vatican. You kept it on a positive note and specifically about the former Uachtaran na hEireann. Go raibh maith agat.

She did not slam the Catholic Church, she slammed the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, the Natural Law that is upheld by the world's major faith groups. There is absolutely no excuse for slamming the person who is homosexual, female or male (homos here means same, Greek; not homo as man, Latin) The person is a sacred creation, made in God's image and worthy of respect. There are some awful bigoted teachers but the Catholic Church says that the same-gender genital activity is dis-ordered, a moral evil, while the person is a human being. Same teaching applies to sex outside marriage and other deviant ways of using this precious sacred gift given by the Creator. Mary's assessment is not on target- her criticism is directed way wider than at the Catholic Church. Compassion for AIDS victims in all nations and among all ages marks the Catholic Church's activity and Her hospitals and health care facilities do not discriminate.

McAleese's views represent compassion and common sense, which is she will challenge people who haven't been in the business of either. It seems she's doing great work after her presidency too. Fair play to her.